10 Ways to Increase iOS Battery Life

Upgrading to iOS 5 delivered a lot of powerful new capabilities to the iPhone and iPad, from Notification Center to iCloud. But these features can take a toll on battery life. There are plenty of other power-hogging settings and activities you need to be aware of in order to make your device last. Admittedly, applying all these battery tips can make your iDevice rather dull. Our advice? Choose the fixes presented below that you can live with.

1. Disable push email, fetch messages less often.

Having your iPhone constantly on alert for incoming messages can drain its battery in a hurry, so be sure to turn push email off. You can schedule your iPhone to check for new messages at regular intervals: every 15 minutes, every 30 minutes, every hour or manually. We suggest selecting manually for those who want to save the most power. Data will still be delivered instantly to your device when you use an app that requests it, such as Mail.

To turn push email off:

• Tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
• Select Fetch New Data.
• Tap the button next to Push, making sure it is in the Off position.
• Select the interval you would like to use in the area below.

2. Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

This one’s a no-brainer. Leaving your Wi-Fi setting on means your phone is actively searching for a Wi-Fi connection even after you’ve left your home or office. This process taxes your battery and drains some of its power.

To turn off Wi-Fi:

• Tap Settings > Wi-Fi.
• Toggle the Wi-Fi button from On to Off.

Bonus Tip: If you prefer to keep Wi-Fi on but hate it when your iPhone automatically asks you to join Wi-Fi networks, you can turn that setting off right from this screen.

Bluetooth is another setting that you don’t need to have turned on if you’re not doing anything with your phone that requires this radio.

To turn off Bluetooth: 

• Tap Settings > General.
• Select Bluetooth.
• Toggle the Bluetooth button Off.

3. Manage Location Services.

The easiest way to stop your iPhone from keeping tabs on your location at all times—and draining your battery in the process—is to shut down Location Services.

To turn off Location Services:

• Tap Settings > Location Services.
• Toggle Location Services Off.

However, for some users, turning Location Services off will be a bit extreme, as they won’t even be able to use the iPhone’s stock Maps app. A better idea might be to manage the apps that access Location Services. For example, do you really need your camera app to broadcast your precise location?

Here’s how to fine-tune Location Services:

• Tap Settings > Location Services.
• Turn the button to the Off position for any app that you would not like to use your location.

If you’re really concerned about location eating up battery power, you can tweak System Services. We recommend toggling off the switches for Setting Time Zone (unless you’re traveling and need this to be activated), Location-Based iAds and Diagnostics & Usage.

How to tweak System Services:

• Tap Settings > Location Services.
• Select System Services.
• Set the radio buttons to Off for those services that you would prefer not to request your location.

4. Use Wi-Fi to download content instead of 3G.

Whether you’re downloading a big app, a movie or a TV show, it’s best to get that content over a Wi-Fi connection instead of 3G. You’ll likely have a faster connection via Wi-Fi, and the time it takes to download will be shorter, which saves power. Plus, 3G is more power hungry than Wi-Fi.

5. Manage Notifications and types of alerts.

An iOS 5 device can notify you every time there’s a new alert, lighting up your iPhone’s screen to catch your attention. The problem is that your display uses power, and over time all these little reminders will add up to less endurance.

Here’s how to manage Notifications:

• Tap Settings > Notifications. You’ll see your apps listed under the heading In Notification Center.
• Select an app whose notifications settings you would like to tweak.
• Choose your alert style: None, Banners or Alerts. None is self-explanatory. Choosing between Banners and Alerts is more a matter of personal preference. The former style makes the app’s notification appear as a 3D-animated strip across the top of your screen. Alerts appears as a standard pop-up window in the middle of the display.
• Scroll down and turn “View in lock screen” to Off. Your phone screen won’t light up when you receive a new notification from a given app.
• On the Messages app, set Repeat Alert to Never. If you don’t clear the notification from your lock screen, your phone repeats the alert every 2-minutes (and each time the alert repeats, it lights up your screen).

Bonus Tip: Move multiple applications to the “Not in Notification Center” group.

Here’s how to do it:

• Tap Settings > Notifications.
• Select Edit in the top right of the screen.
• Tap and hold the three horizontal lines on the right side of an app listed in the “In Notification Center” menu.
• Drag the app’s bar to the “Not in Notification Center” area, and the app will no longer display alerts.
• Repeat for as many apps you would like to move to the “Not in Notification Center” menu.

Top 10 iOS Battery Savers

• Tips 1 through 5
• Tips 6 through 10